Faithless
by Annie Lovegood
Summary: She looked at her hands – they were shaking. Still, she kept on working ... This fanfiction was originally written for the seven virtuessins challenge at harmonylibrary at where the virtue faith was assigned to me.


She looked at her hands – they were shaking. Still, she kept on working, chopping the vegetables.

She stopped once again; her hands didn't let her do her job correctly. She would chop the carrots into huge, monstrous, bits and then into the tiniest little pieces, so that it looked like she was slicing them, not chopping them.

She tried breathing in and out several times before going back to her task; it seemed to work… until that horrific image of him being tortured came to her mind and she dropped the knife, as she had started trembling again.

She bent down to pick it up and heard a soft meow.

"Crookshanks!" she whispered, blinking once. The cat stared at her, a questioning expression upon its magnificent yellow eyes. "Erm… I'm okay, I just, I'm a little bit tired, but someone had to cook dinner, right?" The cat meowed again and then turned around, walking away.

She re-started her job, but that image kept coming to her; Harry being tortured in front of her, while several Death Eathers clapped and laughed, like it was some kind of circus. Their faces were covered but she could see their putrid teeth when they opened their mouths in amusement, she could smell the deaths they'd provoked. She tried to make a move, to help Harry to save him, but something kept her from even moving her arm and once they'd realised that she was struggling, the Death Eaters would laugh even harder at her despair. And then Voldemort would turn his head to look at her, holding his wand not to break the Curse he had launched on Harry, with a vicious smile upon his lips. And then he would lower his wand, and Harry would fall down, unconscious, his face as pale as death itself, sweat all over his head, shaking as he was possessed by fear. And she'd scream, feeling that her heart was being ripped inside her body, unable to breathe, as Voldemort raised his wand and spoke the Killing Curse. And then, the great green flash of light…

"Ouch!" she said, only then noticing how she'd been working; she had been chopping the carrots violently, like it was all their fault, like they had made her have this nightmare, so that instead of almost perfect tiny bits, she had turned most of the carrots into… well, it was even hard to find a name to it. She even had bits of carrot in her sweatshirt! And as a result of her work, she had made a cut on her finger.

It was the tiniest thing, but still, it drained blood like hell. She felt her veins pump blood to that spot, her heart being fast, the finger aching ten times more than it would on a normal occasion, so that she could even swear she could die because of that little cut.

She let herself fall on her knees, sobbing like a child. It was a pitiful image; her hair was messed up, her face contorted with pain, holding her bloody finger, her watery eyes looking at it, blood spilled all over her t-shirt. And there she lay, alone in a dark kitchen, on the freezing floor, sobbing and shivering, for what seemed like eternity, until she heard soft footsteps.

She didn't turn around; she didn't care who it was. She expected to hear something, but instead she heard the soft movements of the person's body as he kneeled next to her and embraced her in a comforting hug.

"Shhh…" his strong, comforting voice came to her ears, as she buried her face in his chest, starting to sob even more, like a helpless child in need of love. She could feel his hand on her hair, stroking it.

And they stood there for a while, until her crying came to a halt and she looked up at her saviour. Green eyes stared back at her, his raven hair as messy as ever, a comforting, tender smile, playing on his lips. "Oh, Harry!" that time it was her who hugged him, holding him so strongly as if he she feared that he would just slip away from her arms. "I dreamed… I dreamed that… that…" she started crying again as she remembered the terrible dream that had been haunting her every night for a while now.

He looked at her. "Shh…" he put a finger to her lips. "I'm here, ain't I?" She opened her mouth but he repeated "Am I not?".

"Yes… But…" She seemed desperate and all he said seemed to be made up phrases.

"But all you have to care about right now is dinner, Hermione. I will not die, you will not die; I won't let them harm any of us. I promise."

"But he was torturing and you were helpless, defenceless. You-"

"Don't you have faith on me?"

"I… Of course, I…"

"Then trust me when I say it – when all this ends, we'll be alive, both of us. I'll stay alive for you and won't let them do you no harm." He kissed her forehead. "I guess I'll tell Mrs. Weasley it'll have to be her making dinner. And you are going to get some sleep." She opened her mouth to reply, but instead she let Harry take hold of her.

Once they had gotten up the stairs and into her bedroom, he placed her on her bed and sat next to her.

"Harry?"

"Hum?"

"I love you and I won't stand loosing you."

"You won't loose me." He said, leaning forward and kissing her.


End file.
